This application relates to means of alerting motorists to the presence of disabled vehicles or work zone areas. Each year hundreds of motorists are either killed or injured along side the roadway. Many of these accidents may be prevented if the oncoming motorist had advance warning of the presence of these disabled vehicles.
In recent years, a variety of traffic warning devices have become known and reference may be had to the following U.S. patents for a description of these prior art of traffic warning devices; U.S. Pat Nos. Des. 4,531,472, 5,263,272, 5,502,909, 5,544,614, 5,775,833, 5,517,395, 5,755,253, 4,535,331.
While this has long been recognized as a traffic safety problem many needless deaths continue to happen every year. Current methods of enhancing motorist awareness include; flares, solid plastic cones and retractable triangles. While all devices may accomplish the same goal as the presented invention, the presented invention is designed to help eliminate current difficulties encountered with their use. With roadside flares there is the inherent short fall that they only last a given period of time and are nor reusable. In addition, they are usually only several inches above the roadway service and may present difficulty in operating. Solid plastic cones are easy to place along the roadway however, unless they are properly weighted and sized they may be displaced due to strong gusts of winds. In addition, the larger the cones the more storage space that is required. This is a disadvantage (especially in small passenger vehicles) and therefore reduces their attractiveness of the use. Retractable triangles are difficult to open and may require the motorist to follow detailed instruction prior to use. In addition they also take a significant amount of space when stored. Therefore the presented invention is designed to help eliminate shortfalls with the current devices. It is envisioned that by increasing the attractiveness, more people will carry the devices in their vehicles and a decrease in roadside fatalities and injuries would result.
The Retractable Safety Marker has been designed to be employ easily, store compactly, withstand prevailing winds and be economical.
The Retractable Safety Marker is a combination of four pieces. The first two pieces are referenced to as the base supports. The third piece is a retractable support element and the fourth piece is a casing.
The two base supports are intended to provide the necessary weight to ensure that the device is not displaced under reasonable wind loads. Each base support also has several strategically placed holes and slots. The base support is primarily a rectangular type box with the top end and one of the sides open. The long sides of the base support contain a combination of a hole and a slot adjacent to the xe2x80x9copenxe2x80x9d end of the box. These holes and slots are designed to allow the base support to be affixed to the upper tabs of the lower portion of the retractable support element.
The third piece is a retractable support element consisting of two retractable arms that are connected to a lower portion and an upper portion. The retractable arms are intended to function in a manner similar to that of an antenna The lower portion of the retractable support element contains four protruding tabs on each side. The upper holes on the two base supports are inserted into the upper protruding tabs of the retractable support element, thus connecting the base supports and the retractable support element. When the base supports are in the open position (parallel to the lower portion), the lower slots on the base support are held in a stable position by the lower tabs on the retractable support element. The lower portion of the retractable support element also contains a raised feature with a continuous indentation encircling the retractable arms. The purpose of this feature is to allow the lower portion of the casing to be held in a fixed position. The upper portion of the retractable support element also contains a continuous indentation, which allows the upper portion of the casing to be held in fixed position.
The fourth piece of the present invention is a casing. The casing is made of a porous cloth or nylon type material similar to netting. The porous material is to allow for the wind to pass through the device thus significantly diminishing the total wind load. The casing itself maybe made partially of reflectorized material and is sized to coincide with the length of the retractable arms in the expanded position. The casing also consists of rubber bands or other similar type devices contained within each end. The casing is held in place by inserting the rubber-banded ends into the continuous indentations on the upper and lower portions of the retractable support element.
The Retractable Safety Marker has been designed for easy placement during emergency situations. The first step in the application process is to rotate the two base supports from the closed to the open position (parallel with the lower portion of the retractable support element). Once the base supports are in a fully extended position, the tabs on the lower portion of the retractable support element in combination of the holes and slots on the base supports are designed to provide the necessary stability. After the base support is fixed in the open position, the arms of the retractable support element (which are in the contracted position) are then expanded by simply pulling in a vertical manner the upper portion of the retractable support element away from the lower portion. This is continued until the retractable arms are in fully extended position. At this point the invention is ready for application.